Reflective Essay on Experience as a Circulating Nurse in a Hospital

RUNNING HEAD: NURSING 0
Reflective Essay
August 6
2019

NURSING 1
A circulating nurse is a registered nurse with the hospital who is a member of the
hospital staff and performs the activities of recording and monitoring the operations to ensure
the proper care of the patient. The job of a circulating nurse includes activities such as
preparing for the operations; regular monitoring of the patients; monitoring of the staff at the
time of operations; recording of the operation's progress reports; maintain the accounts for the
instrument used in operation; and manages the specimen or samples of the patients. This
essay is being prepared according to the Gibbs reflective model of nursing to discuss my
experience which I gained in the hospital while working as a circulation nurse for the
hospital. It shows the tasks which were allotted to me and the way I handled the allotted job
work. Also, it defines some of the good and bad experience and task disturbances which were
faced by me during my job.
Descriptive experience
I was the circulation nurse at the hospital and I was given the responsibility to do
blood pressures and manually radial pulse to examine the accurate heartbeat of the patient
(Neyens, Bayramzadeh, Catchpole, Joseph, Taaffe, Jurewicz, & Group, 2019). I was also
assigned the job of putting the TED (Thrombo - Embolus Deterrent) Stockings which are also
called by Compression Stockings or Anti-Embolism Stockings on patients. I had experienced
the working of pain reliefs that is 5 mg/ 2 ml morphine working difference. I also had to
perform the blood cultures as directed by the doctors to examine any presence of bacteria in
the blood of the patient (Shinozaki, Jacobson, Saeki, Kobayashi, Weisner, Falotico, &
Becker, 2019). The responsibility for managing and handling all the blood samples and
storing them into anaerobic and aerobic bottles to send them to the pathology lab for testing
was the part of my responsibility. I have learned and gained different experience from the job
as a nurse. I have developed my confidence in working in a hospital over time I was working
there. In the nervousness of the working day, I had forgotten to refill the PTS capillary for the

NURSING 2
testing of dehydration level and peripheral perfusion of the patients (Sonoda, Onozuka, &
Hagihara, 2018). These were some tasks which were performed by me as a nurse in the
hospital which made learn about my profession and practical working in the hospitals.
Feelings
I had a great experience at the hospital; I examined the blood pressure and pulse rate
of the patients. I also had to put TED stocking which made me learn about the actual working
process of the TED stocking provided to patients after the surgery so that the patient does not
suffer any blood clotting in his lower leg because of the physical inactivity caused by the rest
after operations. I practiced the process of blood culture and stored the blood samples in
anaerobic and aerobic bottles to send them for testing in the pathology lab. However, due to
my nervousness the other day, I completely forgot to refill the PTS capillary and perform
dehydration and peripheral perfusion examinations for the patient (Ünal, Açar, Yayla, Balci,
Ertem, Kara, & Balbay, 2017). It made the information about the patient's report lacking the
data about dehydration level and peripheral perfusion which were further completed by me
after the direction of the doctor. I was disappointed that I had messed the task up because of
nervousness and it initiated confidence in me to work harder. It made me realize my
importance as a nurse in the hospital and the impact of my workings on the lives of the
patients and this made me feel responsible, more hard-working and focused person toward
my work as a hospital nurse (Peel, Dylla, Hughes, Lynch, Greenwood-Quaintance, Cheng, &
Patel, 2016). The working in the actual hospital environment made me feel an important part
of the hospital working and motivated me to improve my skills and learning.
Evaluation
The good experiences gained during the training were the learning experience of
working as a nurse in the hospital and its importance in the successful treatment of the patient